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Leonid Bershidsky

Merkel’s Would-Be Successor Is a Real Conservative

Friedrich Merz would turn Germany’s leading party away from the compromising center and toward its traditional values and policies.

The real deal. — The real deal.
Photographer: Sean Gallup/Getty Images

By

Leonid Bershidsky

November 1, 2018, 2:41 PM UTC

With Chancellor Angela Merkel heading for her political exit, Germany is about to change. The direction of the change depends in large part on Merkel’s party, the Christian Democratic Union, Germany’s biggest political force. The contest to succeed the departing Merkel as CDU leader, set to play out early next month, provides important clues to what’s at stake.

QuicktakeAngela Merkel